This disclosure relates to an authentication apparatus configured to attest to the authenticity of a user, an authentication method and an authentication system.
The propagation of the internet enables shopping and fund transfer using the internet. Because of this, in order to prevent the execution of fraud shopping or fund transfer by a fraudster, a user authentication is carried out. In a typical user authentication using a password, there is a case where the password leaks through surreptitious glance or wire tapping, which enables a person like a fraudster who gets the password surreptitiously to easily be the proper user. To deal with this, a disposable password (hereinafter, referred to as a “one time password” is used. For example, in a typical user authentication method, different random symbols are generated into a matrix every time the user attempts to do some internet shopping or fund transfer, and the user reads out sequentially the random symbols in the matrix according to a one time password pattern that is defined by the user, whereby the user can use the string of symbols so read out as the one time password.